My youngest sister, Anna, also chooses her battles wisely. What sets her on the warpath is sesame noodles.

Just a quiet mention of this unassuming dish sparks a wild gleam in her eyes. Though typically genteel, Anna will fight you to the death for the last slippery, noodly slurp. The woman is steadfast and true: Even when a newly topped-off serving bowl cradles silky tangles galore, she stands guard, an unflappable sentinel. Anna is one of the more even-tempered adolescents you will meet, but woe to the one who gets between this girl and her noodles.

A few days back, Anna was in the mood for "comfort food," but not just any old thing. She wanted something starchy, salty, and smooth. "Sesame noodles!" she proclaimed. I knew just what to do: call my friend Julia who, with one twirly forkful, single handedly squelched my loathing for sesame noodles. For years, I turned up my nose at the gloppy, peanut buttery mess that turns up at many a sorry potluck. Julia's noodles sing a different tune. Light and smooth, these sesame noodles slide lithely down the throat. They are blessedly free of peanut butter, and thus anything but pasty. Eat them plain, hot out of the pot or chilled, tossed with tofu, or topped with grilled chicken. If you are a sesame noodle skeptic, this is the recipe for you. I would offer you a taste of ours, but then we would both have to contend with Anna. It's probably safer for everyone involved if you just whip up your own batch.

I tried many sesame noodle recipes and yours came out just right - really tasty and easy to prepare - thanks! I adopted this and posted it on my blog with a few minor modifications. I love your writing and your blog.

Hello! I made these last night and mine didn't look like yours at all. My noodles were really sticky. I boiled the sauce like you said, cooked and drained the noodles and immediately poured the sauce after that. They still tasted good, but didn't look as pretty as yours. What could have gone wrong?

Oh no, Laura, I'm so sorry to hear that this recipe did not turn out well for you. Let's try to figure out what went wrong.

The sauce itself was not sticky, was it? (It should be quite liquidy.) Or were the noodles themselves sticky, before you added the sauce? My first suggestion would be to pour the sauce over the drained noodles immediately, so that they do not have a chance to stick together. But you did that.

Were the noodles, by any chance, already sticking to each other when you dumped them from the pot? If so, be sure that you are boiling your noodles in a large enough pot so that they have room to squiggle around in there. And give them a few stirs while they are cooking. Otherwise, the noodles could actually fuse together in the boiling water.

Aside from these suggestions, I'm not really sure what to tell you. This is my first bad report on these noodles. I'm hoping it was just a fluke, and that you will have success with this recipe in the future. Keep me posted, okay?

Will do, we're definitely trying this again. Maybe I didn't stir them enough because we did pour the sauce over them as soon as we drained them, but I didn't notice if they were sticky already. They very well could have been! Thanks for the quick reply!

This recipe is exactly what I was looking for. One of my grandmothers used to make a sesame noodle recipe that I"m trying to recreate. It didn't have peanut butter (bleck) so this recipe sounds about right. I just wanted to ask what kind of sesame oil you use--is it toasted sesame oil?

Hi, Crystal. I use Spectrum Naturals brand sesame oil. I let the toasted sesame seeds take care of the "toasty" flavor in the dish. But I bet toasted sesame oil would be delicious. If you give it a try, let me know how it goes.

Anonymous 1 - Ack! I'm just now seeing your question after more than a year! Please forgive me. I always try to answer recipe questions as they come in, but yours slipped through the cracks somehow. On the off chance that you will check back, and for anyone else who might be interested: When you say "regular" vinegar, what kind do you have in mind? Each vinegar (white vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar) has its own distinct flavor, and will bring that flavor to this recipe. If you don't have rice vinegar on hand, I would say to go with the mildest vinegar you can find.

If anyone out there has tried an alternative to the rice vinegar, what did you use, and how did you like it?

Jess, I've made many different versions of sesame noodles (some with peanut butter and some without!) and these were fantastic! I did make a few revisions -- I used half ginger/half garlic in the sauce, and added in thinly sliced cabbage, julienned pork (leftovers) and cilantro to the noodles. Yum! Next time I might toss in some grated carrot, sliced cukes or snow peas. And there will definitely be a next time because this recipe got two thumbs up from the fam. Thank you! And Happy New Year!